The Lady Or The Tiger (Part 3)
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 10:09AM Time to take a look at the other door — the tiger of self-publishing. Like traditional publishing it has its good sides and bad sides. (But at least that gives me some blog fodder — not much to write about if there’s one clear good choice, eh?)
First and foremost among self-publishing’s strong points is that I retain total control of and all rights to my work. The words are the words I prefer, not some editor’s idea of what’s better. (And if it’s some quirky novel no traditional publisher would ever touch, I have a way to publish it regardless.) I decide what formats it’s published in (including hardcopy if I so choose), where it’s sold online, what the cover art (if any) looks like, and so on. If I want to create a related gaming supplement for it, I can. If some Hollywood exec falls in love with it (ha!), I reap the benefits of selling the movie rights.
There’s no denying how attractive this point is for me. Keeping control of my work is something I strongly prefer. In fact, as I mentioned above, I did some pretty extreme things back in 2001 to take control of my RPG writing. That was the right decision, one I’ve never regretted, and I have to wonder if I shouldn’t make the same choice right from the beginning with fiction. On the other hand, it was a choice I made (and was in a position to make) only after eight years of working as a game writing freelancer and company employee... which is sort of the RPG industry equivalent of going the traditional publishing route and learning your craft in the trenches. Perhaps I need some time in the Somme of fiction as well.
Second, with self-publishing I earn what I deserve to earn, and I get paid quickly. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with advances and flat fees for my writing; they sort of run contrary to my own personal ethos and beliefs. With self-publishing, all the money comes to me — so if a book sells really well my bank account increases nicely, but if it doesn’t do well I deservedly suffer (I can’t even blame the publisher’s crappy cover art or lack of promotion, because I’m responsible for all that too). And whatever I make comes to me in roughly two months, which is a damnsight better than what I hear in most of the stories told by authors in traditional publishing.
Third, self-publishing creates a more “intimate” (if you will) relationship between me and my readers. That’s one thing I love about RPG writing: gamers are a small enough community that I can easily get to know a lot of my customers and fans. I see them at gaming conventions, talk to them online, all that sort of thing. If I succeed with fiction I’d like to maintain the same sort of contact with my readers... and that’s much easier with self-publishing.
Strong incentives, all those — but the Tiger has claws. In a recent blog post, author Chuck Wendig nicely summarizes a lot of them. Some of his don’t apply to me. I have no axe to grind against traditional publishing, I don’t necessarily object to being part of a corporate machine, I don’t fear rejection (or more accurately, I recognize that it can come with either form of publishing), I’m not “desperate to be published,” I don’t expect a financial windfall, and I damn sure don’t think self-publishing is easy.
But Wendig (and others) make some strong points on the negatives of self-publishing that I have to consider:
1. Wendig’s main point, one that really registers with me, is that self-publishing makes it possible for me to publish work that isn’t really ready to be published. Writers are often afflicted with self-doubt, and I’m no different. Is my fiction good enough? Will people like it? Will they buy it? If I publish this, will I look back in five or ten years and cringe at how sloppy the book is and how presumptuous I was?
Being involved in traditional publishing means editors. And a good editor can do a lot to improve a book, and make me a better writer. (A bad one is the literary equivalent of a hatchet to the face, of course, but let’s stay positive. ;) ) Traditional publishing might be a better way to learn the craft of writing good fiction.
The (at least partial) counter-argument put forward by self-publishing proponents is that up until now, traditional publishing has in theory served as a “gatekeeper of quality,” ensuring that only “good” books make it to market. With self-publishing, the customers themselves are the gatekeepers — if my book’s good, word spreads, sales increase, and I know I’m on the right track. But the counter to that is, if a book’s bad, it doesn’t sell... and I don’t necessarily learn anything about how to make the next one better.
Also, I have to ponder this: if I think my work is good enough to show to an agent or traditional publisher, I by definition think it’s good enough to show to potential purchasers. My intent in submitting to a publisher isn’t to get advice on making my book better, it’s because I think the book is ready to go to layout right now, today. So if I feel that way, why should I be worried about selling it myself? (Obvious answer: I may be wrong. But I have to have some degree of self-confidence or I might as well go work retail.)
2. As a self-publisher, I have to do all the work (or pay someone to do what I cannot). Not only do I have to get that sucker written, I have to do the layout. I have to format it for heaven knows how many different platforms and programs at this point. I have to somehow create a cover or logo for it (or find and hire an artist). I have to investigate, and ultimately choose, a printer if I want to print hard copies. All the promotion and marketing efforts fall on my shoulders.
I don’t like this one bit — as I mentioned above, my core competency is writing, and every minute I’m doing something other than writing is a less-than-full-value minute as far as I’m concerned. But with great control comes great responsibility, to paraphrase one of my favorite superheroes... and as I mentioned above, these days it seems like traditional publishers dump a lot of the promotional tasks on authors anyway.
3. Lack of editorial help. As I touched on above, a good editor is worth his weight in gold — and I’m fortunate enough to count among my friends a few editors who fall into the “good” category. But unless I’m willing to shell out cash to hire ’em (which makes earning a profit on the book far less likely), that doesn’t do me much good. Going the traditional publishing route in theory nets me some good editorial assistance... which in turn hopefully makes me a better writer.
4. Self-publishing works better for already-successful authors. There are a lot of authors out there who are extremely strong proponents of self-publishing, like J.A. Konrath or my friend Mike Stackpole. (Notice the name-dropping there? Hi, Mike!) I’ve read their posts on the subject with much fascination, and I think I’ve learned some useful things. I owe them a big fat Thank You, and the next time I see them at a con probably a drink as well.
But from where I sit it seems to me that all the biggest self-publishing cheerleaders are already-published, already-successful authors.
Self-publishing is awesome if you’re an established author. It works really well. You’ve already got the audience, you’ve already got lots of work you can make available, it’s an excellent source of additional revenue. But I have yet to see the same type of cheerleading and success from first-time genre authors like myself.
For me and my ilk, I strongly suspect that the odds of succeeding at self-publishing, of getting noticed and bought and read among the storm of stuff coming out these days, are about the same as the old over-the-transom-and-pray traditional publishing route. I’m sure there are first-time success stories out there, probably more than a few of them... but I’m guessing it’s about the same number of people who succeed with traditional publishing the first time out.
And even Konrath candidly confesses that a lot of his success is due to luck. At some level I have difficulty taking his advice seriously; where he’s at and where I’m at seem like two different galaxies.
5. Self-publishing may be a negative for trying to attract the attention of traditional publishers down the road. Obviously self-publishing isn’t always a death-knell for traditional publishers (Amanda Hocking’s book deal comes to mind). But if I’ve already had the book out on the net and have “skimmed off the easiest sales” (as I’ve seen it put), any traditional publishing interest that might exist diminishes, I suspect.
In summary — self-publishing ain’t exactly the Holy Grail of Becoming a Published Author that some would have you believe. Its upsides come with a matching contingent of downsides.
So... where does that leave me? Wandering around on the Island of Indecisiveness, mostly. Writing all this down helps me, but it hasn’t firmly made up my mind one way or another. If I had two novels I might try both approaches, but for now at least there’s just the one, and I’m only willing to wait so long before kicking off my attempts to make money from my fiction.
Right now I think the major battle is “the validation/prestige/editorial assistance of traditional publishing” versus “total control of my work.” Those, at least, are the issues that most weigh in favor of each side for me. Others are worth considering, but aren’t likely to be primary factors in my decision.
If I had to pick one or the other right this very moment, I think I would probably decide to try traditional publishing. As I said when I joined up with my partners to buy the Hero Games assets ten years ago, I think that in the long run I’ll regret trying and failing (if fail I do) a lot less than I’ll regret the “what might have been” of never giving it a shot. And if it doesn’t work, the self-publishing route is always open to me.
But ask me tomorrow and I may say different. I’ll continue to ponder... and no doubt some of that pondering will be inflicted upon you via this blog. ;)
Reader Comments (9)
Perhaps, you might be able to leverage your name in the HERO community. Maybe you could consider publishing some fiction through HERO, similar to what some of the other gamikng companies have done?
James makes just the point I was going to: You need to exploit your existing audience, no matter how small, as best you can. I've started self-publishing with a line of novels based on the PARANOIA roleplaying game (here's my Ultraviolet Books Amazon store), because there was an existing fan base. In your case I'd suggest you start with stories based on Dark Champions or your other well-known Hero Games work.
That's definitely something I've considered. One of the groups of short stories I've been working on is set in one of the Fantasy settings Hero's already published, Tuala Morn. I may poke around in some other books and see what possibilities suggest themselves. ;)
Thanx!
It seems to make more sense to try the traditional route first. You can always self-publish if no one is interested, but you can't traditionally publish material that is already out there, if you see what I'm saying.
That said, you may be able to leverage your rpg related fame by doing, say, a Dark Champions novel. I know you have a few notes here and there for such a work. Or something set in the emerald forests of Celtic Hero, or just about any Hero System setting. I'm not sure how the IP would fall out on this, but I'm sure you could do it.
Whoops, should have read the post above. Sorry!
Steve,
Two quick points:
1) Going self-published doesn't mean not having access to editors. Traditional publishers regularly use freelance editors to edit books. Self-publishers have the same access to them as traditional publishers. We also have the luxury of "peer editing," where authors swap stories/services. No book should go out without another pair of eyes on it, but there are multiple ways to get those eyes.
2) As others have noted, you already have an established audience who will buy your books. Moreover, you're smart enough to realize that part of success is just getting your titles on the radar of readers. I'm putting together a list of reviewers to whom I can send review copies. If every author did that, and we pooled them, we'd have hundreds of places where we can get our stuff reviewed. Even if every review only results in a single sale, it's one more sale than we had before. Cascading sales and gradual growth do seem to be the model here. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
I will take you up on that drink next time we're together. (StellarCon, perhaps?) And I very much look forward to your success no matter which way you choose to go.
Mike
Thanx Mike! I definitely appreciate the input.
One drink at StellarCon, comin' up. ;)
After reading all three posts on this topic, I was surprised to see that your conclusion was to try the traditional publishing route first. It's possible my reading comprehension skills suck, but after reading these posts I thought that self-publishing was clearly the path most likely to make you happy (taking all factors that apply bonuses to Happiness into account). Either you can, or will learn, to write stuff that people enjoy, buy, and tell other people about, or not. No sense worrying about that. You want to write, you are writing, and that's already Win right there.
You shouldn't dismiss too readily the competencies outside of fiction writing that you already possess. You know a lot about editing, layout, art (how to write specs, how to judge quality, how to interface with artists), process management, and publishing that is extremely valuable, and gives you an advantage over many other self-starters. Also, and this is just my personal opinion (what do I know?), I think you should be wary of the idea that time spent doing anything other than churning out pages of fiction is undesirable. I think you can really drive yourself crazy like that. Obviously you don't want to let doing other non-fiction-writing tasks become things you do to procrastinate from actually writing, but I'm not too worried about that with you (you've spent many years learning the professional discipline required to GET WRITING DONE, and that's no small thing, and another of your many advantages). Doing these other things can actually help to keep you mentally nimble, decompressed and relaxed, and help you recharge and give yourself a little time before your next big revision or writing jag.
As for the editor thing, you have lots and lots of smart, experienced friends and contacts you can probably cajole (or bribe) into reading your drafts and giving you whatever feedback you're looking for, from general to nit-picky specific. You also have guys and gals with actual experience doing this whom you can tap for advice and mentoring. No small thing!
And as others have mentioned, you've already got a fan base that can give you a tremendous leg up on guerrilla marketing your work, especially if you actively engage them to do so. They'll post FB posts, they'll tweet tweets, blog blog posts, and you can probably get on gaming podcasts to talk about your fiction writing because you're Steve Long. That's a potentially huge advantage for you!
Other than wanting to see you succeed, I have no dog at this poker table. But from reading and re-reading your posts, it seems to me like you'll be happier in the short and long run going the self-publishing route. It seems like going traditional just feels safer in some way. Screw that. If you wanted safe you woulda stayed a (practicing) lawyer. :-)
Thanx Chris! You make some excellent points, and I definitely appreciate the feedback. ;)
At this point -- and my thinking on this could change tomorrow, no doubt ;) -- part of what drives me to consider trying traditional publishing is that not doing so would at least in part be acting out of concern (or if you want to put it more starkly, fear ;) ) that I can't cut it in traditional publishing. I don't want to shy away from something just because it's difficult. And I'd like to think that I can, in fact, find someone who recognizes my genius and wants to pay me for my novel. ;)
If I send it around, and no one likes it, well that sends a pretty clear message that I cannot, in fact, cut it in the modern world of traditional publishing. At that point self-publishing is still open to me -- and I have all the advantages you have so thoughtfully enumerated.
But who knows? Maybe if MYTHIC HERO goes well as a self-publshing venture it'll persuade me to look at that end of the pool some more. ;)